Gocycle’s designer-in-chief Richard Thorpe is rebooting the e-bike company he founded more than two-decades ago. Following a January restructuring to reduce overhead, Thorpe is now turning to crowdfunding to help launch a new series of F1-inspired e-bikes while also expanding into non-electric foldables — a space currently dominated by Gocycle’s British compatriots Brompton.
To drum up support, Thorpe is going to tell his story and the challenges and opportunities his small business faces in a series of videos that will be released over the next few weeks. The first, rather earnest installment focuses on “Bikeaggedon,” Thorpe’s word for the turmoil created by soaring e-bike demand at the onset of covid, followed by a collapse of the…